That looks a bit like the name of some extreme Nazi PoW camp rather than the amusing portmanteau word it sounded in my head. Nevertheless, it sums up what we have here: a nostalgic look back at a few VHS cassette boxes.

Too soon? We’re all still obsessing with audio C90s? Oh well. These’ll still be here when the next retro phase kicks in.

2 responses to “VHStalgia”

These are all still so fresh, I feel like I only saw them lying around on the living-room floor last night.

It was satisfying to put the almost-square label on the top of the tape, but markedly less so to try and place the elongated one along its ‘spine’. Then, you’d have to look at your wonky positioning time and again when the cassette was ejected or (if you were a serious curator) placed on the bookshelf.

I also like the way good old WHSmith clarify that their tape is ‘blank’. It always pays to use the customer’s language, even if it makes you look a bit cretinous. People did, indeed, always talk about getting some ‘blank tapes’.

I’d do my damndest to ensure the ‘skyscraper’ stickers were straight as I was indeed a serious curator. And to avoid the unsightly spinal scrawls (FrasierFriendsHIGNFYDr WhoDay Today DO NOT TAPE OVER!) I hit upon this rather neat idea of simply numbering the videos – neatly, of course – then assigning a couple of pages to each cassette in a book that I called the ‘tape record’.

It was almost a shame to ditch the lot when we bought a DVD recorder thingie, or PVR or whatever it is.

Going further back, when people first started buying VCRs many of them would close the curtains when they went out so that passing thieves wouldn’t see the tell-tale flashing LED of the clock.